In an effort to consolidate and streamline its products, Yahoo, Inc. announced the retirement of its 20-year-old Yahoo Directory, a hierarchical directory of websites launched by company founders Jerry Yang and David Filo in 1994. The long running service was the company’s namesake product, having been the first project to coin the name “Yahoo!” short for “Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle.”
Hierarchical directories were very important in the early days of Internet, playing a significant role in putting users in touch with websites of interest back when Google did not exist and the contemporary search engines of the time provided awful results.
An important distinction between web directories – also called link directories – and search engines isthat directories do not display results based on typed keywords. Instead, the directories contain lists of content separated by categories and subcategories and are curated by human editors rather than being compiled by web crawlers; effectively, making users the search engine. Site owners were permitted to submit their content to be evaluated by a editor in order to make the list.
As time progressed and the web became increasingly saturated with content, editors could not keep pace with the flow of information. Eventually, the launch of the Google search engine made search engines useful and directories became obsolete. Nonetheless, the Yahoo Directory remains functional and available until December 31, when Yahoo will pull the plug.
Along with Yahoo Directories, Yahoo Education, a site designed to connect users with education providers and resources, and Qwiki, an app the assembled short video clips based on content in a user’s camera roll, will also be terminated. In the last two years, Yahoo, Inc. has shut down more than 60 products and services in a bid to consolidate its talent improve higher priority projects.
Via Yahoo/Ars Technica
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